Alzheimer S Assn

A local chapter of the Alzheimer's Assn. has received $42,000 from various groups to provide expanded services to Ventura County residents. Oxnard awarded the county chapter $5,000 for an education program that will pay for a series of presentations to families and professionals at senior centers throughout the city.

George Carroll Schrader, a retired dairy worker, died Monday at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura. He was 82. He was born Jan. 28, 1919, in Lincoln, Neb., and graduated from high school there. He began working for Meadow Gold Dairy in Lincoln after high school. Schrader met his future wife, Clarice Miller, when they were in the ninth grade, and the couple married on March 2, 1940. They moved to Ventura in 1947 and he took a job with Valentine Dairy.

An estimated 5.4 million people in the U.S. have Alzheimer's disease. That leads to … 14.9 million unpaid caregivers, $183 billion in annual costs. So begins the latest report from the Alzheimer's Assn. The report, 2011 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures , sheds more light on the toll the disease takes on not just patients but caregivers. "Unpaid caregivers are primarily family members, but they also include other relatives and friends," the report says.

Jewish tradition teaches that one good deed leads to another. Some 16 months ago, I was honored to be invited to inaugurate this column. A word--spoken or written--is like a pebble dropped into a pond. Its ripples extend to places unexpected. Months later, I received a phone call from the chairman of the Religious Advisory Committee of the Alzheimer's Assn. asking me to share in their work.

For more than a decade, the Alzheimer's Assn. of Orange County has been helping seniors with the disease reconnect themselves to their past through art. The program, Memories in the Making, uses artistic expression--painting, sculpting, collage making and drawing--to help patients remember their past and help relieve stress. Alzheimer's patients typically suffer from profound memory loss, disorientation and speech difficulty. There is no cure.

Asserting "we are at an exceptional moment" in the hunt for an Alzheimer'sdiseasetreatment, National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis Collins on Tuesday promised a raft of new research aimed at stopping and reversing the memory-robbing disorder by the year 2025. In unveiling a first-ever "national strategy" on Alzheimer's disease, Collins launched several new projects and clinical trials--including a whole-genome sequencing effort to identify genes that confer vulnerability to--or protection against-- Alzheimer's, and a trial to explore whether an inhaled form of insulin will slow progression of the disease.

The e-mail alert shouted its message: "Missing Person with Alzheimer's. PLEASE HELP. " It was sent to Alzheimer's Assn. chapters and to law enforcement officials within hours after an Orange County woman disappeared while on a short trip to visit a friend. The woman had set out in her car, made a wrong turn and became confused, says her family, who asked that her name not be used to protect her privacy. During the next two days, she zigzagged her way across two states, making one wrong turn after another, putting ever more miles between herself and her home as she headed east.

People may be able to reduce their risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, according to two recently published studies that are the latest in a long line of research. But does that hold for everyone? And by how much can you lower the risk? Here's a look at the facts. Alzheimer's afflicts 5.3 million Americans and that number is predicted to grow to nearly 8 million in the next 20 years, according to a 2009 report by the Alzheimer's Assn. Because the disease has no cure, medical researchers continue to focus on preventing or delaying the disease.

The event: Rock 'n' Roll Royale Casino Night, a Vegas-style gala that had guests taking a chance with Lady Luck on Thursday at the Hard Rock Cafe in Newport Beach. Staged by Team X-treme, a group of young professionals that supports the Alzheimer's Assn. of Orange County, the casino night raised a jackpot for the chapter's help line. Full house: A pair of massive fuzzy dice dangled above the heads of 350 guests as they made their way into the Hard Rock for a night of fun and games.

This post has been corrected. Please see note at bottom for details. KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Maybe Nicki Minaj will help save us from Alzheimer's someday. A YouTube video now making waves features an elderly man in a nursing home who doesn't recognize his daughter when she greets him. His name is Henry and he's slumped over in his chair. He barely answers questions. Then someone gives him an iPod and everything changes. He begins to dance in his seat. He hums along with the music.